Since the weather in Calgary has been crap lately I did the only logical thing - bought some parts for my bikes! I was going to harvest the disc wheels on my winter bike as a spare set for my Volae, but now that the winter bike has been reassigned to Sarah I needed a new plan. My LBS had some Mavic X717 rims pre-built with XT hubs and DT spokes for a good price. I'm torn between the value of pre-built wheels with their inherent quality issues and the high cost of custom built wheels that are going to be trouble free. As an example the MSRP for a Mavic X717 rim is $99.99 and a XT hub is about the same $100. I got the each pre-built wheel for $175. So before spokes, nipples and wheel building costs I am ahead $25. Overall I am probably saving $125+ per wheel buying them this way. I have a truing stand and tension meter so I'll make sure the machine built wheels get some love before they get used.Some tech specs for the bike nerds out there:
Front Wheel $175cdn:
weight w/o QR/disc/tube/tire = 885g
weight w/ QR/disc/tube/tire = 1491g
Schwalbe Stelvio 26 x 1.1" [no name tube]
Rear Wheel $175cdn:
weight w/o QR/disc/tube/tire/cass = 1075g
weight w/ QR/disc/tube/tire/cass = 1985g
Schwalbe Stelvio 26 x 1.1" [no name tube]
SRAM 11-34 cassette
These aren't wheels that will keep you up at night fantasizing about them, but I like the all black stealth look and they should be very functional at a reasonable price. Also one advantage of these wheels over some of the fancier offerings by Velocity or Mavic is that they have a conventional spoke configuration which is much easier to repair in the field than a proprietary spoke setup.
1 comment:
Vik, there's definitely deals out there for the XT's and spokes, so keep an eye on the major e-tailers. You've already got a truing stand, so you're a good candidate to save some $ next time around. I know this doesn't work when time is short, but it's good to know what's out there.
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